Community members in Dallas will get together on December 30 for a bench dedication ceremony and memorial service for Sherin Mathews, the Indian American girl who was found dead at a culvert near home in October.
Bench dedication and dove release will take place after the memorial service at Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, reported WFAA.
People from Richardson and surrounding communities united to search and pray for her. Stuffed toy animals will also be collected to donate in Mathew’s honor.
Space has been provided by Restland as a place for the community to reflect and honor Mathews.
David Turnblad, a family service counselor at Restland, who was deeply influenced by the sad death of the toddler came up with the idea of dedicating benches.
Turnblad met a man named Gene through the Nextdoor app when Gene was looking for someone to donate the benches.
“The thing that I really like is that Richland Park is a very diverse neighborhood and this crosses all the religious cultural lines, they’ve all disappeared,” Turnblad told WFAA. “It’s about the community.”
Mike Wilfong, the community outreach director for Restland said he was happy to take part in the memorial service and bench dedication in the girl’s honor.
People haven’t had that chance or opportunity to get together and start that process to begin to come to terms and move toward healing,” he told WFAA.
Mathews, who was adopted by Indian American parents Sini Mathews and Wesley Mathews from an orphanage in Bihar, India, was found missing on October 7. After several days of search, police found her body in a culvert, about a mile from her home.
Initially, Wesley Mathews gave a false statement to the police that he punished the girl for not drinking milk by forcing her to stand outside of the house around midnight, and found her missing when he returned. Later, he confessed that the girl chocked to death when he tried force feeding her.
The parents were arrested and put behind bars by the police during the investigation.
Wesley Mathews has been charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony, and Sini has been charged with child abandonment or endangerment.
A family court has barred the parents from visiting their three-year-old biological daughter who is now living with her extended family.
The reason for the 3-year-old’s death is yet to be determined by medical examiners.